Casey's Journey part 1
by Casca910
Summary: A follow on to "Wildfire to TS-19' Retake" It had been three days since Casey left the 'CDC' group. They had went south toward fort Benning, in the hopes of hooking up with remnants of the military and Casey was heading north. They had given him Shanes jeep, which was on it's last legs but better than nothing. The Jeep broke down the next day.
1. Chapter 1

It had been three days since Casey left the 'CDC' group. They had went south toward fort Benning, in the hopes of hooking up with remnants of the military.

He hoped they got their shit together, but in his mind, they were a bomb waiting to explode.  
Rick seemed like he good guy and he could lead, but he wasn't coming up to speed fast enough. Well, the coma probably didn't help. That and it took Casey 10 minutes to realize Ricks wife and Shane had had 'a thing' while he was in dreamland.

Casey couldn't stand either of them. Shane was walking a razors edge to insanity and Lori was a whinny bitch.

Hopefully, Dale could back Rick up on his decisions. He seemed like he had the groups ear. Glen was just too young and willing to please to have any effect on 'policy' issues.

Caseys thought were interupted as he saw a farm house up ahead. It was set well back from the back road he was shadowing. Taking stock of his situation, Casey realized he was going through his water MUCH faster than he anticipated. Food wasn't yet a problem, but in his situation, it was always a concern. Ammo was good. He could do with a day or so to recover from the 40 or so hard miles he had covered in the last 3 days. There was about 3 hours of daylight left, he wanted to conserve the batteries for his Night Vision goggles (NVGs).

It was time to risk contact before exhastion degraded his combat performance.

As he walked up the edge of the overgrown dirt driveway, He noticed the large barn/garage off to the right of the single story modular home. Adjusting his route to keep the barn between him and the house, It looked buttoned up but he saw a small window in the side of the barn.

Creeping to the window, he saw a Jeep Wrangler and a Chevy Blazer inside. If He could get either of them running...  
The window was too dirty and too small to see the entire interior.

Casey came around the corner of the barn, checking out the house as best he could. Nothing was moving. Casey took one step forward and BAM.

The next thing he knew, Casey was flat on his back with blood flowing, heavily, from a large gash on his right check. The culprit being the handle of a god damn bow rake. Just like a bad three stooges show, he had stepped on the damn thing. Head and ears ringing, he wobbled back to the corner of the barn. 'No more stupid amateur mistakes', ran through his head as he pulled a signal mirror from his pack. Quickly checking the area and finding it clear, he checked his face.

A large gash ran from just below the corner of his right eye to just above the right corner of his mouth. DAMN. Opening a bottle of super glue, he used it to close the wound as good as possible.  
The pain made him clench his teeth until his jaw ached. As the pain subsided he checked himself in the mirror. What a mess.  
"Oh well, I was never gonna be a chippendale dude anyway," he mumbled to himself.

Working his jaw loose (while checking the area again), He waited a few moments. Both to collect himself and, more importantly, so he wouldn't stupidly glue his face to the M-4.

His old commanding officer used to say, "Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance" and that was even more important now. 'Time to be smarter.'

Dropping his pack behind a patch of overgrown weeds, he checked the chamber of his M-4 and made sure the suppressor on the Glock 19 was on tight. A third quick check of his surroundings and he took off running towards the house. About 10 paces into his run and he thought he heard something moving in the barn. "Oh well, I'm fucking committed now"

He made it to the house without incident. He stopped at a corner that would not allow anyone in the home to see him and waited to catch his breath. 'Damn this was easier 20 years ago,' ran through his mind. When he wasn't breathing so hard he worked his way around the house, stopping at the door to the screened in porch. It was open, only the sliding screen door to the interior was closed.  
'Not a good sign.' He had a decision to make. Breech and clear right now or continue to make his way around the home. He figured he had seen about two thirds the outside already and with the pain he was in, breeching was what he decided.

Going in he quietly closed the screen door behind himself and transitioned to the suppressed Glock, mainly to try to preserve his hearing. He crept up to the sliding door and did his 'patent pending sniff test'. Pass. All he could smell was dust and vague moldyness. Next listen. After a solid two minutes... Nothing. Time to go in.  
Trying the door, he found it wouldn't move. instead of forcing it Casey decided to take out his knife and quietly cut the screen. Finishing that he moved in, of course catching the rail of his carbine on the edge of the screen, negating all his supposed stealth.

Checking the interior, he was in the dining room, to the right was the kitchen and then what looked like a dayroom or family room that had a door to the outside. Straight ahead was the living room and the front door. To the left of the living room, a hallway. Probably the bedrooms and such.

Casey decided to go right, clear the family room and head toward the bedrooms. Next time, he would finish the walkaround. The family room was clear and it had a laundry room that was also clear. Casey noted that there were some canned goods there, but now wasn't the time to check them. Hanging on a set of nails were three sets of key. Casey pocketed them right then.

Taking his time, Casey cleared the house without contact. It wasn't until he was in the master bathroom that he saw how messed up his face was. Red and puffy. Painful to the touch.

He dug into the med kit on his belt and took some of the anti-inflamitories and "Kick ass" antibiotics that they had gotten from Doc Jenner.

The home didn't have a basement, so Casey went back and closed the dining rooms sliding door. The next clear would be hairy. There were pull down stairs in the hallway. That had to be cleared. He pulled the stairs down only about 2 inches and left them that way as he backed into the living room. After a minute or two of nothing, Casey pulled them down the rest of the way. Except an underwear ruining moment of two starlings bursting out. He cleared a remarkably empty attic. Next step. Shoe the birds out. Then the barn.

The barn had a door facing the house, Casey was just finished putting the suppressor on his M-4 when he heard a man's scream of agony. Casey wasn't a very large man, but living in today's devastated world had solidified his 6 foot 200 pound frame, and when he moved with purpose, he was a wrecking ball. Putting his foot to the door almost took it off the hinges. Before the door had finished moving, he was in.  
It was a definite 'WHAT THE FUCK!' moment. Inside was two people, a man, clutching his bleeding left hand and a blonde woman duct taped to a 4X8 sheet of plywood! There was a large amount of blood on the woman and board, the man turned to him with a scalpel in his right hand. Casey's surprise lasted just long enough for the man to take two steps toward him before Casey fired two rounds into the man's chest and then one into his head.

After ensuring the man's brains were goo on the floor, Casey turned to the woman and got another surprise. She had turned. Finishing her with his knife, Casey tried to figure out what was going on.  
The man had a bite on his left wrist, very fresh.  
On a workbench was a slide with a blood sample and a wooden box with dozens of similar slides.  
There were dozens of pictures hanging in such a way that no matter where the woman looked, there was a picture. Some were of the woman, 2 children and a man. Some were of a crime scene. It looked like a carbon monoxide murder/suicide involving the man and 2 children. Wait, although they looked a lot alike, there were two different men and the second one only had a little girl in the pictures with him. There were police reports for that family as well. Creepily similar. The wife in both reports had different names, but the photos were of the same woman. The woman on the table.

OK, so the woman killed 2 families. This dude killed her by... bloodletting, again creepy. But why? A check of the man's wallet revealed his name was Dexter Morgan and he had been a forensic blood spatter analyst from Miami. OK, that explained how he got the police reports. It seemed the woman died, this Dexter let his hand get to close and he was bitten.  
But what was up with the slides? And the gash on the woman's right cheek?  
Sometimes answers just lead to more questions.  
Time to get one of these vehicles running... 


	2. Chapter 2

Casey was just opening the door of a garage that he had spent the night in when he heard gunfire in the distance. From the sound he was sure they were close, under a mile, but not aimed at him. 'Well, I better check this out.'  
Locking the Blazers door and closing the garage door, Casey took off at a slow jog in the general direction. He stayed off, but within sight, of the road. After 15 minutes he came to the edge of the tree line. Stopping while he still had concealment, he quickly sized up the situation. Four men behind two pick-ups, firing at a small brick building with no windows and some kind of radio-like tower, while sporadic, VERY inaccurate fire was being returned. A third vehicle, a small SUV, was starting to smoke.  
There were four bodies on the ground (They weren't going to get up, someone had seen to that). The shooters that Casey could see were using an AK, lever action, an AR type and a bolt action rifle. As Casey watched AK dude called to the others to stop firing. He then pointed at Bolt action kid and sent him about 50 yards away. Keeping watch (?).  
AK dude then yelled to the building. Casey couldn't hear what was said, but a red haired girl of about 20 came out with her hands up. After a few animated words between them, AK dude flattened her with rifle butt to the head. Then, predictably AK dude started to undo his belt and fly.  
'NOT gonna happen' went through his mind as Casey put the red dot of his aim-point on Bolt action kids chest. One suppressed shot later and one bad guy was writhing on the ground choking on his own blood. Casey wasn't a cruel person, but setting that kid up to become a walker might serve as a distraction. Turning back to the trucks, He saw that the other three hadn't heard his suppressed shot and the girl was still on the ground. Good. He didn't have a shot at AK dude, too bad, so that put AR dude next on his list. Flipping to burst, Casey hit AR dude with at least 2 rounds and quickly snapped a burst at the only target he had left, lever action dude. Unfortunately only clipping him. That woke them up. They started firing into the woods, but they were well off from Casey's location, thank you MR. Suppressor. Unfortunately Casey was on the clock. The undead in the area undoubtedly were heading this way and had been for several minutes because of the unsuppressed gunfire. Lever action dude had spent his ammo mauling a helpless group of bushes and started to move try to upgrade to become AR dude 2.0. BIG Mistake dude. Casey had been waiting for that and it put lever action dude in the open for a few seconds as he picked up the AR. One burst quickly put him down.  
That left AK dude who was hiding behind the box of the pick-up. 'Why do people think the thin metal of a vehicle will protect them' ran through Casey's mind as he put three quick bursts through the pick-ups bed. AK dude went down, unfortunately AK dude must've pulled the trigger as he was hit and Casey heard the girl scream in pain and the truck settle on one quarter, 'Damn, one of us blew out the tire.'  
As Casey got up and started to move to the girl, bolt action dude got up to go to Casey. Ignoring the slow moving goon for now, Casey got to the vehicles and checked out the scene. AK dude was down permanently, his skull was opened up like a flower, but AR Dude and lever action dude were dead and needed to be shot again. Turning Casey brought his carbine up to take out bolt action dude. One shot and that was done.

The girl was watching Casey when he turned. He made sure he kept the barrel of his carbine from pointing directly at her,"Are you OK?"  
"NO, I've been shot, you idiot!" She was holding her leg just above the knee.  
"Let me see". Guessing that anyone with three big rings on each hand wasn't a combatant, he tore the knee area of her pant leg open. Not bad. A deep gouge was taken out of the outer part of her lower thigh and it was bleeding hard but not spurting. "Keeping your voice down while I bandage this would be nice. My names Casey."  
"Mines Claudia"  
"OK Claudia, Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to bandage that wound, gather everything that might be of value here, jump in that pick-up, go back to my truck and then hopefully get out of here before this place becomes an undead rave. You can come or not, your decision."  
"What do you want?" "A crispy cream donut, a vacation and world peace. In that order."  
"I can't go without the gear we were here for."  
"Can one person move it in less than 5 minutes?" 


	3. Chapter 3

Later that night Casey and Claudia Pulled into her base in Greenville, South Carolina. The people there had used shipping containers and the trailers from 18 wheelers (pulled onto their sides) to encircle a mobile home development of about 50 homes. Casey couldn't believe it. It was honestly huge. At least five acres, probably way more, and surrounded by... well Casey lost count at 49 containers (and he couldn't see all of them anyway). They were quickly surrounded by people with questions and Casey got VERY uncomfortable, it had been months since he had seen so many people. A pretty girl about Claudia's age came jogging over with a big red first aid bag.

Claudia pointed at her and simply said,"Rose."

"I'd have said it was more a burgundy, but if you say it's rose..."

"Her name you ape!" She said laughing.

Rose was very professional, telling the pair that they would be quarantined until 'Jordan' cleared them, "What about Rich and Cliff?"

Claudia just shook her head and said, "Raiders again."

"Elliot will want to talk to you, especially him." Rose said as she expertly re-bandaged Claudia's leg.

"Him's name is Casey", Casey said,"Jordan a doctor?"

"Do you mind being examined by a coroner?"

"There's a joke there, just give me a second to figure it out", Casey liked Rose immediately.

Before anything else could be said, A well built man about Casey's age came jogging up. Casey sized him up quickly. 'He knows how to handle himself, in shape, leader type'

He first turned to Claudia and asked,"Rich and Cliff?"

"Raiders, This is Casey, He saved me."

A quick nod to Casey and then back to Claudia, "The transmitters?"

"In his Truck."

"Thanks for saving Claudia" Elliot said turning to Casey.

"It was the right thing to do." It was obvious that both men were sizing the other up.

"You a Vet?" Elliot asked.

"Desert Storm, You?"

"Same."

"Want to bet, in ten minutes, they'll be trying to find out who can pee farther?", Claudia mock whispered to Rose.

Ignoring the girls,"What's up with the transmitters? Is anyone out there receiving?" Casey asked as a slim beauty with dark hair walked up.

"We're trying to get back in touch with the CDC. They never answered us, but we were receiving transmissions from them until about a month ago."

"We hope they have some sort of theory or treatment, even some information that we can use. I'm Jordan the local doctor."

"We three need to talk, privately. NOW."

Elliot called a 'town meeting' in the morning and let everyone know what had happened to the CDC.

While he was talking, Casey found Claudia,

"Claudia, can anyone here copy a hard drive that probably has all sorts of protection?"

"I could do that BEFORE my morning coffee. Why? And please don't let me hear the word porn."

"No one knows this, but I have a portable hard drive from the CDC that should have EVERYTHING Jenner had. I'm hoping it's mostly porn but he didn't seem the type."

Claudia became very animated, attracting attention,"Why didn't you say something?!"

Casey looked around and, unfortunately had the whole rooms attention.

"Damn." he whispered before addressing the group, "Doctor Jenner gave me a hard drive that may contain all the information he had on the... plague, I guess. I didn't want anyone to know until I found someone who could copy and decrypt it. Jenner... well he was exhausted and had given up, for all I know this could hold information on the dead or his fantasy football picks."

"You should've said something, this could have the cure!" Elliot squared off on Casey.

'This is what I wanted to avoid.' ran through Casey's mind, "Not according to Jenner, He didn't know if it was viral, bacterial or if Hell had no more room. I'm happy to let you copy it, but the original stays with me."

Elliot was angry and about to say something, but decided against it, "Let's see if Claudia can copy it and go from there."

Moving through the crowd Casey could feel everyone watching him. They walked toward the Infirmary, veering off toward a travel trailer off to the side. As they began to file in Elliot asked Claudia how long it would take.

"Depends how much information is on it, how it's compressed, what type it is and if I have the programs to decrypt it."

Casey asked,"And if you don't have the programs you need?"

"I may be able to convert it to something usable, so let's not buy trouble."

She quickly plugged the hard drive into her set up and began, "Copying this will be no problem, but some of the information is in a media style format that I don't have. It's in a high density codec for transmitting"

"Claudia," Casey interrupted, "We don't speak geek, except maybe a little Klingon."

"I may still be able to convert this to something we can view."

"What would you need if you can't convert it?", Elliot asked.

"Any place that sends and receives high density media files should have something I can use."

"I don't know where we could get an ELINT vehicle, maybe one of the reserve bases..." Elliot began to say.

"What about a news van?" Casey asked. "I saw one two or three days ago."

"That might have the codecs and if they don't I'll be able to adapt them. This crappy set up is about 3 years too old for the job."

Elliot nodded,"Claudia, make the copy and see what you can do here and now. Casey, we have a scavenging run to plan."

"One thing, Claudia, Make two copies. One that is not altered and one for you to play with."

XXXXX

And yes I HAD to throw the obligatory 'Dawn of the Dead' reference in. See if you can find it, It is obvious.


	4. Chapter 4

Casey's head hurt. This was like talking to a rock.

"Elliot, going after this like it's D-day is a mistake."

Once again Elliot gave Casey that fake smile, the one Casey really hated.

"Well, I'm not going that far without the firepower we need."

"Listen, this isn't force projection, it's a snatch and grab. A minimal footprint 'Armor through speed' concept."

"Yeah, historically that worked so well for the Brits."

"Wait, you got that reference?" Casey shook his head,"Doesn't matter. If you want me to help, this is all I need. A tow truck, preferably 4 wheel drive, two 5 gallon jerry cans of gas, a fully charged deep cycle car battery, a second shooter and someone who can recognize the equipment we're going for. The only extras that would be nice is a mechanic, just in case and CB radios for both vehicles. That's it 3 to 4 people."

"That's suicidal. I won't..."

Casey interrupted, "I made it from Ocala Florida to here, almost entirely alone. You're designing this using the knowledge you have and you've had to move in force because gathering the containers for this wall was noisy, gathering the supplies for this many people is noisy, and noise attracts the walkers. This NEEDS to be quiet."

"OK, Explain why you need what you said."

"The tow truck, in case we can't get the van moving on it's own, 4 wheel drive is obvious. Gas, also obvious, the Battery, just in case we can't get close and the van's battery is dead or bad, The second shooter, to ride or drive the tow truck back, I'll drive the van and the techie will be securing the equipment in case we need to ditch the van. If we take a Mechanic we can hot-wire it, and it gives us a shooter in each vehicle for more security."

"You'll attract walkers all the way down..."

"Unavoidable, to minimize the swarm we'll leave at night, I'll drive using night vision goggles that I got from the CDC. That means we should arrive during the morning and have the most light to work with while on scene."

"You've thought this through." At least Elliot was actually thinking about it and that irritating fake smile was gone.

"Not really, this is how I had to think while out there."

That night they were off. Casey was driving using the NVGs. He carefully avoided all the walkers, This wasn't about taking them down, it was about getting the equipment back, and damage to the truck could cause them to abort. They made good time and got to the van a few minutes before dawn.

Giving the others orders to stay with the truck, Casey went forward, using the NVGs until the approaching dawn made him remove them. Except for a few goons locked in their cars and some kind of Fire department vehicle (and as far as Casey was concerned, they would stay there until the cars rusted out from under them), Casey only found one walker on the road. Oddly, it sat against the news van, not reacting even as Casey approached. Not willing to take chances, he drew his knife and got ready. For some reason, the goon almost sprang to life just as Casey plunged the knife into it's eye. As he scanned his surroundings, Casey thought about the goon, He had seen some of them, just lay around. But this sitting there until he was right on top of them was new.

The area was clear, So he signaled the others to come up. Joe, the mechanic, leading Eric, the tech weenie, as Eva, the other shooter stayed at the tow truck, providing cover. Joe wore a pack with the battery and jumper cables while Eric carried a 5 gallon can of gas.

Of course, the van was locked. 'If it was easy, I wouldn't be involved.' ran through Casey's mind. But as the others caught up to him, he had an idea. Stopping the others, Casey said, "Check that walker for the keys... and anything else." Amazingly and weirdly, it did have the keys, although the remote didn't work. Joe unlocked the door and was about to open it but Casey stopped him. Screwing on the suppressor for his pistol, Casey opened the door and sniffed. Nothing. Entering the van and clearing it showed 2 things. It was empty and the dome light didn't come on. Glancing at the dash as he got out, he saw the headlight switch was on, so he turned them off and popped the hood.

"Eric, get in and turn the ignition to accessory. Find out what's on and turn it off." Casey was scanning and looked back to Eva, she gave him an OK signal. He took the suppressor off his Glock.

'I need to find a holster that will fit this with the can on'

Joe was already set to jump start the van.

'Quick and efficient, good.'

It took three attempts to get the van started. Each time Casey cringed at the noise, but it had to be done. Glancing back, Casey saw Eva give him the guarded sign, pointing past the van.

It wasn't the head's up sign so he jogged to the back of the van and climbed the ladder on the door. About 2 miles down the road was ... something. A large dust cloud.

'Damn, I wish I had a good scope.' Taking out his binoculars, Casey couldn't see what it was, but he suspected. As he climbed down Casey looked at the Chevy suburban with Fire Command F6 on the side.

"Joe, will this thing go?" Casey asked.

"It should be good. Half a tank of gas."

"Change of plans, we need to get that Command vehicle running, now."

To his credit Joe didn't ask any questions. The door wasn't locked, so Casey opened it and stabbed the walker in the drivers seat. It had a radio and a leather-man on it's hip, so Casey threw them on the passenger seat and popped the hood. The keys were already in the ignition.

Joe was hooking the battery up as Casey poured gas into the tank. It took a minute to find the switch to turn the emergency lights off.

Five tries got the truck running. The smell inside was beyond bad and Casey was glad he hadn't eaten, But Joe lost his breakfast. They found some red BIO garbage bags and covered the drivers seat, they got in and they drove to the truck.

Casey got out of the truck and motioned Eva down, "Eva your in charge, get these guys and the van back to base."

"What about you?"

"That dust cloud is a shitload of walkers and they're heading right here, if they keep on the road, they'll get uncomfortably close to base. So I'm gonna try and lead them off" Casey poured the second 5 gallon can into the truck's gas tank.

"How many do you think there are?"

"Hundreds at least, maybe thousands."


End file.
